Caption: Homo heidelbergensis reconstruction. This fossil skull (Cranium 12), here being reconstructed, was excavated from the Sima de los Huesos pit in the Atapuerca foothills in Spain. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, containing the earliest human remains found in Europe. Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelberg Man) is an extinct hominin species from the same genus as modern humans. Like other early humans, they had complex social structures and lived in family groups. They lived around 600,000 to 400,000 years ago.